Letters to the Editor
Gwool
Published Letters: 366 Editor's Choice: 40
-
Analysis Paralysis
[Read the article: What's worse than watching your teams lose? Watching them win]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's sports. Stop reading so much into it.
I have been an avid Boston Sports fan all of my 48 years. I think this pyschobabble about how it isn't the same reads too much into it.
After years of expecting your team to fare one way, it takes a while to expect them to fare the other.
I watched the Celtics and Bruins for years expecting them to do well while watching the Patriots and Red Sox expecting them to find a way to screw it up.
The Patriots were the first to reverse that thought process, and then the Red Sox. Yeah, that first world series was a very, very different experience from the second one. I sometimes lapse into the old thinking of expecting them to choke and to fold, but they managed to prove me wrong this year.
As for the Patriots? Hell, they are just an amazing team to watch. That kind of dominance and precision is so incredibly rare. We're right in the middle of what could be the Patriots' Golden Age akin to a couple of the Dallas dynasties, San Francisco, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Minnesota Vikings, and a slight upgrade on the Buffalo Bills with Jim Kelly.
So savor the moment, adapt to the new management philosophy and be thankful.
If anything, what it has shown me is how much management actually has to do with success or failure. It takes a true corporate philosophy that players buy into. It also suggests an economic backlash of sorts. Some players have decided NOT to chase the money, but to settle for a little less (and still be set for life) in order to play in a professional environment where management does what it takes to support the players on the field.
Kraft brought it to the Patriots after learning from his mistakes with his relationship with Parcells, and the new Red Sox ownership has brought it to the Red Sox. It's more than just salaries, as evidenced by each team letting older, high profile players walk rather than pay them long term, high end salaries based on a peak performance history not likely to be replicated in their declining years.
It's investing in employee benefits, such as more comfortable locker rooms, better practice facilities, and so on.
Compare the amenities at Gillette Stadium to the antics of that Musclehead Billy Sullivan who had players lay on top of beds in hotel rooms to get a break on the room rate.
So yeah, the way I look at the Red Sox is evolving. I actually *expect* the celtics to be able to pull out a few games in the clutch this year. The Patriots have a team that simply defies credulity with the salary cap, and the secret to that is having a philosophical approach that true athletes will appreciate that realizes you can't put a price on a winning atmosphere. Tedy Bruschi started that when he took $2M a year in a deal he negotiated himself when he could have commanded close to twice that if he'd tested free Agency. Others have followed suit, including Troy Brown, Junior Seau, Tom Brady, Randy Moss while Branch, Law, Milloy, Patten, and Givens have their money and their Januarys free.
The Boston Red Sox now can count Curt Schilling and Mike Lowell as guys who have done the same thing while the New York Yankees overpaid Mariano Rivero and Jorge Posada. It's not quite as important a critical success factor in Baseball as Football, given Football has a "hard cap."
Belichick gets it. He gets it not because he's a football mind but because he is trained in economics. A top 10 first round pick costs you about $20M in the first contract while picks 10 to 20 cost about $10M to $15M. Hence why he trades out of the high end of the first round, which I will expect him to do with the San Francisco pick this year. That $2OM player might make 4 individually great plays, and if he goes down you are screwed. The lower round guys might make 1 or 2 if you draft right.
So, if you have faith in your system and the player organization buys into the culture, then you are fine. Asante Samuel wants his dough, so he's out of here after this year.
Someone will fill in adequately, and the system will compensate for the loss of Asante's 4 individually great plays a year that will walk for an extra $10M or so over the life of the contract proposals.
Professional sports is a business, and Belichick understands business, as does Kraft and John Henry. Jeremy Jacobs still rifles the clubhouse sofa cushions for spare change, which is why the Bruins fail.
It's a great time to be a Boston sports fan. We're learning how to enjoy the new found wealth.
-
Great Stuff
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This was a rarity on salon, it was an unbiased, factual debunking of mainstream media reporting to get at the real facts of situation.
I enjoyed it immensely.
The snarling described is the true culprit of 9/11. Terrorists have taken out time. Time wasted in airline travel restrictions.
It's an obstacle the wealthy now avoid through the increased in timeshared corporate jets. Losing those high end ticket fares means the rest of us slobs have to pay that much more in our supersaver fare on our occasional travel plan.
Good work on a factual explanation of what is going on within that industry.